Modelo Especial

Why I tried this: Ok, don't laugh. I was pretty drunk and was out with Jon at WOB UCF, and thought it would be a good idea to get the rest of my Mexican beers out of the way on my way to 500. Modelo Especial was the next on the list. I originally wasn't planning on writing a review of it, but while I was drinking and commenting on how it was less bad than the other Mexican beers I had that night, he demanded I post a review.

Smell: I honestly couldn't detect anything. There may have been a very slight hop aroma, but it was probably my imagination. The rest was a weak, garbled mess.

Taste: Ugh. Not much better than the smell. There was a trace of sweet malts, and again a trace of lightly bitter hops. Other than that, it was very watery and light, with no real other flavor to speak of. This beer was meant to be slammed, not enjoyed. The only positive part, I suppose, is the lack of the taste. It could have tasted awful, but instead tasted like next to nothing. I guess that's a positive?

I'm just going to go ahead and give this beer a quarter empty glass. There's just no two ways around it: this beer sucks. It's a Mexican beer, and by default that already makes it suck pretty hard. It doesn't do much to improve from that base status. The only time I'd ever drink this again was if I was at a college party playing a drinking game, and it was offered to me as the beer we were going to drink. I would never order this or willingly buy it on my own. But, I guess it could be worse. It could be a Corona.

--Jeff

Cigar City Big Sound

Why I tried this: Lately I've been finding myself drinking quite a few beers from Cigar City, and minus the Jai Alai (IPA), I've really enjoyed the brews from this company. I had no idea what to get and asked Kyle to surprise me. Happily, he brought back a new Cigar City brew I hadn't tried yet, a scotch ale at that.

Smell: A big whiff of roasted and sweet malts pretty much overwhelm the nostrils. There is also a hint of cherry, which was quite pleasant.

Taste: The roasted malts come through here in full force, but fade to allow a complex sweetness to arise. This sweetness seems to be a mix of malts, toffee, and cherry. On top of this, I also got a bit of yeasty breadiness, which affirmed its ale status. Pretty complex, thick, and damn tasty.

I think this ale deserves an empty glass award. Cigar City has made a scotch ale with all the right ale ingredients, providing a powerfully complex but ultimately delicious blend. The malt and toffee sweetness mix very well with the cherry hints, and the whole brew just screams quality at me. It was a pleasure to drink the entire glass. I can only imagine how much better this must be on tap. Highly recommended if you like ales or just malty beers in general.

--Jeff

Samuel Adams Summer Ale

My Canon DSLR put to good use...

Why I tried this: I have loved my good friend Samuel and most of his beers for a pretty long time now. I love picking up the samplers at each season from the store and I am always excited when I see a new Samuel Adams that I haven't had yet. Whenever I go out to a bar with a potential customer or boss I always order a Sam Adams so I look legit like in the commercial.

Smell: Summer. Scents of citrus, earthy hop scent, a relaxing refreshing scent.

Taste: The flavor starts out as a citrusy flavor that seems composed mostly of lemon and grapefruit ..mostly. There is a very good wheat flavor that is pretty subtle and very enjoyable. After you get past the citrus it has the typical hop flavor finish that I enjoy and expect with each of the Samuel Adams beers. The flavor is blended nicely and all of the flavors complement each other nicely.


This beer receives the quarter pint left rating. It is a good beer but there are plenty of other Samuel Adams beers that I enjoy much more then this one. I love trying all of the Samuel Adams beers and there are certain seasonals I always cant wait for when it gets close and unfortunately this is not one of the ones I will impatiently be waiting for. This beer is still very good but, Ive had better from Mr. Adams, and there are plenty of others I cant wait for.


--Jon

Erie Presque Isle Pilsner

Why I tried this: It was just another day at the office...err, World of Beer. I was just looking for something new on tap that wouldn't kill me. I'd had a few beers from Erie before, and having been unimpressed with what I've tried thus far, I initially skipped over this beer. However, my choices on the draft list were getting slim, and a pilsner sounded like just the thing for me, so I went with this beer.

Smell: I didn't really get much from this beer. Had a slight earthy hop, but only very slightly. Perhaps a bit of a bready, yeasty smell.

Taste: Not much here either. You get a slight bitterness from hops, and a certain dryness that is probably one of the few pleasing qualities of this beer. There is a slight spic

e towards the end, but overall not a strong flavor, and what's there doesn't hold when it all finally goes down.

I think it's pretty fair to say this beer will only get a half glass award from me. It's a pretty forgettable beer that lacks a good scent and doesn't have much going on in the taste department either. It's not a very crisp or clean pilsner, and was honestly just too hard to figure out what they were trying to do with this beer. I did like the dryness of the beer, and that it was fairly easy to drink, but that's about it. A good pilsner should be clean, crisp, and have lots of good flavors blended together. This does not. I won't be trying this beer again, and don't recommend it.

--Jeff

Bell's Hopslam Firkin Cask

Why I tried this: It was Bell's night at World of Beer, and I was determined to try some fresh Bell's beer on tap. The Hopslam Firkin was actually one of the beers I had earlier in the night. I was originally drinking a Double Cream Stout when Logan stopped me and told me I was crazy if I didn't try the firkin. Apparently they had very limited quantity and it would be gone very soon, if not already. Kyle agreed, so I made it my next beer. Logan was being a jerkface and wouldn't give me two beers at once so unfortunately, that meant I had to slam the stout, so I won't have a proper review for it haha. This will probably be the last Bell's review I'll be doing for the time being.

Smell: I got a really pleasant floral hop scent that had a bit of bananas and lots of citrus, notably orange, mixed in. There were other faint sweet smells as well.

Taste: It sort of comes in two waves. The first wave you can taste some lightly sweet malts and more citrus/orange. However, once you get paste the initial sweetness, in comes the bitterness. The hops start to take over, and boy do they take over huge. You are left with a very bitter and hoppy taste in your mouth. I don't know if it was the firkin cask or what, as normally I really despise this, but I actually somewhat enjoyed the finish.

Overall, I'd probably give this beer a quarter pint glass. I normally don't like hoppy beers at all, and maybe it was the firkin cask doing something different, but I definitely enjoyed this beer. At 10%, it was fairly strong, but I couldn't taste the alcohol. There was just too much flavor there. The sweet smell and initial taste was a nice surprise, as in an IPA for me that is usually drowned out by bitter hops, but the hops let the other tastes come through first before they made their presence known. Very hoppy in the finish, but overall enjoyable. If you like IPAs, this is probably a must have.

--Jeff

Bell's Expedition Stout

Why I tried this: It was Bell's night, and up next was the Expedition Stout. Previously, I had written about the Bell's Consecrator. I think this stout chronologically came right before the Consecrator and was the primary reason why I started to get pretty drunk. Thanks Kyle and Logan. Anyway, this is just the next in a series of Bell's beers I'll be covering from that night.

Smell: It has a very roasted, malty scent, with a good mix of chocolate. You can easily smell the high alcohol content of this beer.

Taste: I pretty much got the same thing I smelled. It had a very dark roasted malt flavor to it, with a fair amount of chocolate to balance it all out with sweetness, but there was a strong taste of alcohol that burned the tongue a bit. I don't believe Bell made much attempt to hide how strong this beer was. Definitely an imperial stout.

At 10.5%, this imperial stout was definitely a kick to the teeth. It was also the main cause of my downward spiral of the night. However, despite the harshness of the alcohol, what was there was very good and balanced. I always enjoy a good stout. However, I don't know if I would order this again. It was a sipper for sure. With that said, I'd probably give this beer a quarter full glass. If you're an imperial stout fan, give this one a try. You may be surprised.

--Jeff

Terrapin Sunray Wheat Beer

Why I got this: This beer was suggested to me by one of my favorite bartenders, Jackie. She typically recommends good beers to me so I went with it. On a side note Jackie also needs to shotgun a beer with Derrick and I again. I'm not exactly sure how to spell Derrick, Derek, or whatever so he's going to have to get over it.

Smell: Well I made the mistake of not smelling this beer before tasting it. Going in for the second sniff... This beer has a grainy, sweet smell, like a Belgian ale.

Taste: When I first started drinking this beer I absolutely did not expect at all a Belgian flavor. This beer tastes like a classic grainy Belgian beer. The flavor is a very very grainy malty bread flavor. The finish of this beer beyond the malts is somewhat sweet and sugary. This beer's title made me expect something a bit different going into it. The classic Belgian ale flavor and bite was a bit of a surprise to me but hey, what do I know.

This beer receives a quarter glass remaining. I was delightfully surprised by the flavor of this beer. This is a very good beer from Terrapin and I have loved many of their recent beers that I have had. While I enjoyed this beer very much there are plenty of beers I would rather have. If you are looking for a beer with the described flavors above that you haven't had this may be a good recommendation.



--Jon

Bell's Consecrator Doppelbock

Why I tried this: It was Bell's night at World of Beer. Every once in a while they have a brewer's night where they hook up a handful of beers from a craft brewery on tap, and have neat swag and stuff going on. This was such a night. Although this wasn't the first Bell's beer I had that night, this will be the first one I will review, as it was probably my favorite, that I could remember.

Smell: I was able to detect a lot of malts and a caramel sweetness in the scent of this beer.

Taste: Malty and sweet, likely due to the caramel. It also has a slight fruitiness to it as well, but I couldn't discern exactly what was in it. Overall, the taste is pretty well balanced and almost a bit mild.

Overall, I'd give this beer an empty glass award. It was a hard decision, because I actually wanted almost a little stronger of a flavor, but then I realized this is made up for in the smoothness of the beer, which in turn makes it more drinkable. I think that's a fair trade considering the great taste and smell. Definitely give this beer a try if you can find it.

--Jeff

St. Peter's Old Style Porter

Why I tried this: Was talking with someone at the bar at WOB (sorry I forgot your name, I was fairly drunk!) and he recommended me to try anything from St. Peter's brewery. We were discussing it with the bartenders and they suggested I try the Old Style Porter. Sorry for the poor lightning picture, but you get the idea. It's a porter.

Smell: Mostly of roasted malts and a slight bit of coffee. Very pleasant, and better than your average porter.

Taste: The first thing I noticed about this beer while tasting it was how creamy and smooth it was. There was a definite strong roasted malt flavor, combined with coffee, or perhaps even toffee, as there was a slight sweetness to it which was really nice. Highly enjoyable all the way down.

Overall, I'm going to give St. Peter's Old Style Porter an empty pint glass award. This was one damn smooth porter. Normally you get an overpowered roasted malt and coffee flavor from your porters, but not this one. The flavor is strong, but extremely well balanced. I really liked the slight sweetness, which really helped said balance. I'd recommend this beer to anyone that likes a dark beer.

--Jeff

Terrapin Hop Karma Brown IPA

Why I got this: I have enjoyed a few of the Terrapin beers from this brewery so when I saw this beer I figured it would absolutely be worth trying. I like IPAs but am not a huge fan of brown ales, and I have no idea what a brown IPA is, so here we go.

Smell: Malty scent with a crisp hop flavor. This beer has a pretty pleasant scent to it.

Taste: Right up front I got a crisp fresh hop flavor that was very pleasant. In my opinion the hop flavor of this beer is not overpowering at all, they are smooth and very consistent. After an enjoyable brief encounter with the hops, this beer slides in to the smooth malt flavors. The caramel malt flavors are fairly mild and there is a "toasty" flavor you can sense with the malts. Once you swallow the sip of beer you are left with a mild taste of the crisp hops.

Overall I would give this beer a quarter pint remaining. This beer was great and I really liked it, but it's not in my top favorites. I have gotten this beer several times when I went out to other bars and even recommend it to people that I think would enjoy it. I look forward to trying some more of the Terrapin beers at World of Beer UCF, they seem like a great brewery that makes some fantastic brews.




--Jon

Hofbrau Hefeweizen

Why I tried this: We were watching the Manchester United v Chelsea game for the UEFA Champions league at World of Beer UCF with Jerry, one of the owners. Manchested United won, so we needed a victory beer. A 22oz of Hofbrau it was.

Smell: Mostly of wheats and grains, with a little bit of lemon. Very fresh smelling, and quite nice.

Taste: About the same as the

smell. It had an earthy flavor to it, on top of a bit of lemon and some mild sweetness I couldn't place. The beer was very crisp and refreshing.

Overall, I'd give this beer a quarter full glass. It was a good hefeweizen, but there really isn't too much to say about it. It has your usual wheat and earthy taste/smell to it, with a hint of lemon and a sweetness to balance out. It was drinkable, but not overly flavorful. If you are looking for something a bit stronger or more complex, this might not do it for you. Otherwise, would recommend.

--Jeff

Red Brick 16th Anniversary

Why I tried this: I was sitting outside at World of Beer UCF watching a Manchester United game, and Panda ninja appeared and asked what I'd like to drink. I wasn't prepared to answer that yet, so I had her get me something, and Red Brick 16th Anniversary is what came out. I've had Red Brick before, specifically their #'s Ale, which I enjoyed, so I was pretty hopeful with this one.

Smell: Had a light scent of vanilla with some moderate maltiness, and a hint of bourbon. I could tell this was going to be a strong beer.

Taste: Damn. That's some complex stuff in there. This beer definitely spent some time making love to a bourbon cask, as it soaked in quite a bit of bourbon flavor. This is balanced out by a sweetness that tastes like caramel, plus some earthly malts. There is no noticeable hop at all.

Overall, I'd give this beer a quarter full glass award. This slightly copper colored brown ale was very special. The bourbon flavor was fairly unique, and there were lots of flavors crafted into this beer that made it quite fun to drink. However, it was highly alcoholic at 11%, which made this one a sipper. I wouldn't mind getting it from time to time. Recommended! Thanks Panda!

--Jeff

Victory Donnybrook Stout

Why I tried this: What's this?!?! A new stout on tap that I haven't had yet?! This is fantastic. In this long journey to champion 500 beers, sometimes it's hard when your options are dwindling for a favorite beer type. Stouts are one of my favorite types and it's been hard lately for me to find one I haven't had yet. Whenever a new stout goes on tap at World of Beer UCF, it's pretty much an early Christmas present, or in this case early easter egg I guess.

Smell: Roasted malt/coffee flavor. Not very strong. There was another scent there too that would probably be best described as the smell when it's about to rain.

Taste: This beer was probably one of the oddest tasting stouts I have ever had. When you take your sip the first flavor you get is pretty watery. The water flavor isn't soft or bad, it's crisp like a good bottle of water. The difference in the water flavor is like the difference you would notice drinking Fiji water over bottled drinking water at the grocery store. It's a bit more crisp and refreshing. If you don't agree with me nobody cares what you think, you're wrong. Anyway, the beer flavor is odd because the best way to describe it is a watered down stout, that sounds a lot worse then it tastes in this beer's case. The crisp watered down flavor is pretty refreshing but all of the malty flavors and roast flavors you would expect take the back seat, a far back away seat, like in the back of a limo.

Im giving this beer a ranking of a half full beer glass. While this beer's watery flavor made it fairly refreshing and crisp, thats not what I want when I order a stout. I would possibly get this beer again but only in very specific circumstances. It has a pretty good flavor, it's not a beer that I had to force down or anything, in fact the watery flavor made it a quick easy drink. I would probably only suggest this beer to someone that told me they would like to drink a stout but the roasted malt flavors are too strong for them.


--Jon

Paulaner Hefeweizen

Why I tried this: Josh from World of Beer recommended I try this since it wasn't already on my list, and it was supposed to be a pretty good hefeweizen. Sign me up.

Smell: Had your typical wheat scent, with a hint of clove spices, and something sweet I couldn't pick up. Very nice.

Taste: The first thing you get is an immediate taste of banana, followed up with barley wheat and a slight spice. The sweetness of the banana lingers all the way down, and the beer is just supremely creamy and smooth.

For a pretty attainable beer, I was expecting a more watered down and mainstream flavor. Instead, what I got was a top notch hefeweizen that failed to disappoint. The smell is quality, and the taste simply delicious. The banana and wheat mix very well, providing a strong taste in a creamy, smooth beer. Overall, this beer gets an empty glass award. Highly recommended!

--Jeff

last day of Starr Hill BoGo @ Publix

Today is the last day at Publix that you can get 6 packs of Starr Hill buy one get one free.  Starr Hill brewery make some pretty good beers including one that we have reviewed Starr Hill The Love.

--Jon

Beered up at World of Beer UCF w/ Edwin

On another trip to World of beer UCF I bumped into one of the bartenders, Edwin, out of his class A World of Beer uniform. We ended up hanging out and enjoying some awesome beer.

Later on in the night after alcohol impaired my judgement, Edwin lied to me and told me a beer was only 5.5% so I ordered it and was told it was 11% ..what a nice guy. His side of the story is that he was talking about the next beer but everyone should know that's just a lie. I guess I can't hold it against him too much for all the good beers he's recommended to me.

Jon (me) and Edwin

--Jon

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout

im an artist, what an artsy picture

Why I tried this: I wanted a stout. I had been avoiding this beer for a while because apparently it's brewed with licorice and I hate licorice. Yah, on a side note that means I hate Jager too, that stuff is the worst. Anyway, a few beers later and eventually my desire for a stout outweighed my hatred for licorice.

Smell: Coffee and chocolate scent with a slight roasted scent.

Taste: Before I took that first sip, I was a bit concerned. I blankly stared at the bottle for a while because of how much I really hate licorice. After some hesitation and thoughts of regret I decided to go for it and tackle the beast. As I flinched expecting a licorice beat down the flavor opened and it was very pleasant. The roasted flavor is noticeable and strong but is balanced very well by the other flavors of this stout. The chocolate and coffee malt flavors are superbly blended, there is also a syrupy sweetness to this beer as well. I didn't really notice any licorice flavor or maybe I just didn't mind it because of how blended in it was, either way it made me pretty happy.

After completing this beer and loving every drop this beer gets an empty glass rating. The flavors were great together and this beer was a very enjoyable smooth drink. This is a beer I would absolutely get again and again and like it every time. If you don't like licorice don't let that stop you from getting this beer. If you do like licorice, what's wrong with you? It's terrible. In that case you'll love this beer, especially since you can stomach and enjoy licorice.

--Jon

Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale

Why I tried this: It was a Tuesday, and a fine day out. I was perusing the bottles section while discussing Cigar City brewery with my buddy Dave. I was telling him I had had the Jose Marti Porter and didn't much care for it. He asked if I had tried their Maduro Brown Ale. I had not, and he insisted it was pretty good, so I ordered it.

Smell: Just like a brown ale should, earthen and malty. Nothing too exciting.

Taste: Wow. Not what I was expecting at all. This is not your average brown ale. It starts with a malty flavor that is roasted, tasting more like a porter than a brown. A sweetness of chocolate then hits. The entire sip is insanely smooth. I literally felt like I was drinking velvet.

This beer gets an empty glass from me, no questions asked. Cigar City, a local Florida brewery, has hit a home run. I never expected a brown ale to taste so dark and sweet. The balance was just simply incredible. And the smoothness...that really tops it off. Get this ale.

--Jeff

Drinkin at World of Beer UCF with The Marines

Cell phone pictures, what can you expect? Serious red eye, blurry, low light, low quality.

...Alright thats enough this isnt a photography review blog.

While battling for a position at the bar we ran into a few guys in the Marines that just got back from a tour in Afghanistan. Glad they made a safe return! It was pretty awesome to talk to them for a while and hopefully we run into them again in the future. Kristy and I mostly got cut out...mostly.

--Jon

Top 10 Loyalty @ World of Beer UCF

In 10th place and moving on up.  Current count should put me at 8th by now and Jeff will be on the board fo sho' with their next update.

Movin on up, To the east side. We finally got a piece of the pie

--Jon